A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
On the 4 December 2015, two (2) children in a village named Lengo, 15 kilometres from Bakouma in the Mbomou province, Eastern Central African Republic (CAR), were taken to the Bakouma Health Centre suffering from an unidentified disease with rashes all over their bodies. On the 29 December 2015, following the testing of samples and diagnosis, the Minister of Health (MoH) declared a Monkey-pox outbreak and requested World Health Organization (WHO)’s support in carrying out further analysis and immediate response. On 5 February 2016, a new Monkey pox case was reported from the same area where the first 2 cases originated. In total, 13 people were affected and confirmed positive for Monkey pox, of which two died. Given the relative rareness of the Monkey-pox, the CAR population’s limited knowledge on how the disease is spread (mostly through contact with animals, or direct contact with an infected person), and the common consumption of monkey meat in the Mbomou province, there was an urgent need to respond to the outbreak.
On 17 February 2016, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released CHF 55,848 from the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Central African Republic Red Cross (CARC) reduce the immediate risk of the Monkey-pox outbreak to 164,000 people (indirectly) and 64,000 people (directly), living in the Bakouma, Gambo, Ouango and Rafaï sub-prefectures of the Mbomou Province, through support social mobilization and community communication activities, for a period of two months. This Operations Update is requesting an extension to the timeframe by two weeks (New end date: 30 April 2016) to enable the deployment of a Finance Analyst to support the closure of the DREF operation; as well as data collection on the number of people reached. The DREF operation will end on 30 April 2016, and a final report will be made available on 31 July 2016 (3 months after the end of the DREF operation).
This DREF has been replenished by the Canadian Red Cross Society / Government and Netherlands Red Cross / Silent Emergencies Fund. The major donors and partners of the DREF include the Red Cross Societies and governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA, as well as DG ECHO, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) the Medtronic and Zurich Foundations and other corporate and private donors. The IFRC, on behalf of the Central African Republic Red Cross would like to extend many thanks to all partners for their generous contributions.